In Tribute: Dairyman remembered for singing voice

Leon Nash lived to be 94, which is a long time in most families, but not among the Nash clan.

“People in our family live to be close to 100. Dad really died kinda early,” Jerry Nash said with a laugh about his father.

Leon was a dairy farmer in Floyd for many years. His sons described him as an honest, loving, and a “stand-up guy.”

“He was a marshmallow,” Dave Nash said. “He wouldn’t hurt a flea.”

Leon died Sept. 9 at the Retirement Ranch in Clovis.
His sons said their dad was a wonderful singer with a deep bass voice.

Once, he was invited to join the Stamps Quartet to travel the country and sing. He declined the offer because he had to care for his wife, two sons, a daughter and run a dairy, his sons said.

“He used to say, ‘you could go anywhere you want to as long as you could get home in time to milk,’” Jerry Nash said.
Later in life, he got the chance to travel, flying with his son Jerry in his private plane.

“He really liked going to Disneyland and flying over the mountains,” Jerry Nash said. “That’s really a treat when you’re a dairy farmer.”

Boating was another of Leon’s favorite things to do. He did not know how to swim, but at 6 feet 7 inches, he also felt he had a built-in excuse.

“He said he didn’t know how to swim because he never found a lake deep enough that he couldn’t wade it,” Jerry Nash said.

Leon was active in the Floyd United Methodist Church and was one of the church’s founding members, even helping build it in the early 1950s, family members said.

“They didn’t hire a company or a contract the job, they did it themselves,” Dave Nash said. “He would just work on it whenever he got a chance. And they didn’t just put it together, it is a sturdy building.”

His sons said the family misses Leon and they know he is in a better place.